SHAW ACADEMY

Lesson 1 Course Notes

Diploma in Photography

Styles of Photography

Aerial Photography

Capturing scenes for above usually quite high from a helicopter, airplane or a remote controlled

drones.

Architectural Photography

Photographing buildings and structures that are visually interesting. This can be either the entire

building/structure or an abstract of some interesting component of its design. Architectural

Photography can include both interiors and exteriors.

Candid Photography

Candid photography is a style that captures the subject very naturally without instruction or guidance

from the photographer. Often subjects aren’t even aware that they are been photographed which

results in very natural and relaxed shots.

Close Up/ Macro Photography

Close up photography refers to getting up real close to a small subject and filling the entire frame or picture with the subject. This can be purely because the subject is a very interesting shape, texture or has some detail you want to emphasize. Macro is very similar is concept really, however macro is getting in even closer, maybe to the point where the subject is not even recognizable anymore and all you see is a shape or pattern that is just visually interesting or colourful.

Conceptual/ Fine Art Photography

Conceptual/ Fine Art Photography refers images or collection of images where the photographer is

trying to convey a particular idea or concept. Typically the images are staged or constructed to convey

this concept and the photographs aim to provoke emotion from the viewer, weather that emotion

joy, sadness, intrigue or even fear.

Documentary Photography

Documentary photography is where the photographer is exploring a particular subject to highlight it and tell its story. A documentary project will usually consist of many pictures that form a photo story. This can be a positive or negative story, it may be an issue that people aren’t aware of such as war, famine or a cultural and social issues. These kind of ‘Photo’ stories would feature regularly in magazines like LIFE. Documentary photography can also be positive information and tell stories of new discoveries in nature, science or the achievements of individuals or groups of people. This is typically the style of the photo stories featured in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine

Fashion Photography

One of the main purposes or functions of fashion photography we would probably say it is really the

use of images to sell a product. This can be anything from clothes, fragrances, footwear or accessories.

While the main of objective is to entice the viewer to purchase the product, the images are usually

creative and visually interesting. Of course this visual interest is what draws the viewer in and attracts

them to the product. It is usually trying to glamourize a product or lifestyle. However even though this

style of photography has a particular function it can still extremely creative and visually interesting. In

this sense fashion photography can shot for purely creative and artist reasons which means it can be

enjoyed by people even if they are not interested in the product

Food Photography

Food photography is a style of photography aimed at capturing images of food in a creative, attractive

and interesting way. It can be used to promote a restaurant, illustrate a cook book, add visuals to a

blog, or simply sell a food product.

Landscape Photography

Landscape photography typically try’s to represent a particular space and illustrate the beauty of a

natural world. However, landscape photography has a broad definition as it is not always large open

landscape filled with mountains, lakes and trees. Landscape images can also be urban settings and

even industrial areas. Landscape photography doesn’t always try to show the beauty of a natural

environment, it could be used to show something negative such as an environment impacted by

human or natural disasters and other things that have change a space.

Night/Long Exposure Photography

Night or long exposure photography is usually used to photograph anything when the light is very low

or when it’s dark. It’s typically used to capture stationary objects/subjects in low light while allowing

moving objects to blur or streak through the scene. For example the lights of a moving vehicle as it

drives through the scene that is been captured.

Photojournalism

Photojournalism is similar to documentary photography in that you are usually highlighting a

particular subject or issue. However the difference with photojournalism is that the subject you are

photographing is a current event and you are there shooting it as it happens and informing the world

about it as it unfolds.

Portraiture

In very broad terms portraiture refers to photographing a person or group of people to capture their

expression, personality and mood. Typically but not always the face is usually the focus of the image.

You can have close up images of the face, ¾ length portraits, full body portraits and environmental

portraits. Portraits can be posed or natural like candid shots we looked at earlier. You tend to always

strive to reveal the person personality and character from the image, and this can be a good or bad

personality, could be a strong or weak personality or funny/serious personality.

Street Photography

Street Photography refers to documenting public spaces and the lives that are lived out within these

spaces. The subjects or people within these images are typically regular people and may not even

know that they are been photographed. It is a look at the everyday world around you.

War Photography

War photography captures photographs of armed conflict and life in war-torn areas. Photographers

who shot war typically put their life in danger to document the event. War photographers could be

sent to the location by a press agency to cover the story or could be there to document the process

as part of a campaign to help end the crisis. Some photographers will also document the aftermath of

war to highlight the devastation left behind once the conflict has ended.

Wildlife Photography

Wildlife photography is a genre of photography concerned with documenting various forms

of wildlife in their natural habitat.

How we see with our eyes

So how does light allow us to see?

So here on earth the primary source of light is from the sun, otherwise artificial light provides a

source of light or us, like the ceiling light in your room. But most objects around us do not emit light

and do not have their own natural light source. The way that light allows us to see, is that all objects

actually reflect light. Even the blackest object on the planet reflects some amount of light therefore

allowing us to see them. So what’s actually happening is that light from sun or some article source is

emitting light, its bouncing off/reflecting off objects and then enters our eyes allowing us to see.

The pupils in our eyes controls the flow of light entering our eyes. They can opened to a large size

and closed down quite small , or essentially get bigger or smaller to restrict light or allow more light

in depending on the lighting conditions we are in.

Too much light and we will be blinded by the objects, they will be too bright and we won’t be able to

see them. Too little light and objects will be too dark and we won’t be able to see them properly.

This is essentially exposure. Our eyes need a certain pupil size or setting in order for our vision to be

correctly exposed for the scene we are looking at. Too much light and our vision will be over

exposed. Too little light and our vision will under exposed.

Exposure – The Camera

Exposure works the same way in our photography. The digital sensor, which captures and records

our images is light sensitive. Light entering the camera forms an image on the sensor, if we do not

control the light entering the cameras our images will either become too bright or too dark. Too

much light hitting the sensor and the image becomes over exposed. Not enough light and the image

will be under exposed. What we want to achieve is the right level of brightness to replicate the scene

as saw it. We refer to this as correct exposure.

The camera has two mechanisms for controlling light, the shutter inside the camera and the aperture

inside the lens. Lesson 3 explores the function of both the aperture and shutter.

Camera Types

Compact/Point and Shoot

Have sensors of 16 up to 20 MP

Zoom range from 5 to 12 x time’s optical zoom

Very basic: simply a point and shoot

Bridge Camera

They are a bridge between the compact and DSLR worlds

Very powerful zoom ranges going from 40x to a whopping 80x zoom

Most will offer manual modes, lower end models will have restrictions on shutter speeds and

apertures.

Mirrorless Cameras

They get there name because unlike DSLRs that have no mirror that opens up when you press

the shutter release

Less weight, same quality as DLSR

Lacking a mirror means these cameras can shoot very fast FPS.

DSLR – Digital Single Lens Reflex

Offer full manual control

Exceptional colour depth, better dynamic range

Ability to add huge range of accessories and add-ons

Inter changeable lens

Optical Viewfinder

High frame rate

Thank you